This invention relates to the electroforming of foil sheets or panels in a continuous electroforming process.
Heretofore, structural shapes of relatively thin metal are formed by the use of standard cold rolled metal sheets, shears, punch presses, press brakes and traditional finishing methods.
Conventional methods of manufacture to fabricate long linear shapes utilize the roll forming of angular, round or square bends into the sheets when indefinite lengths are required and a high speed production method is necessary.
Another method has been to "brake" shapes to the bends required which limits the length of the pieces to the length of the brake and requires more handling later than the roll forming method.
Both of these are labour intensive and require expensive tooling. Furthermore, the shipping and storage of the finished shape is often awkward and extremely space consuming so that costs of storage and transportation are often excessive.
The present invention overcomes these disadvantages and one aspect of the invention is to provide an electroformed flat sheet of metal having at least one line of weakness formed therethrough during the electroforming thereof, to provide a subsequent bend line for said sheet.
A further aspect of the invention is to provide a method of producing a metal shape having optimum thickness for its structural purpose and having the exact size and contour desired consisting of the steps of electroforming a flat sheet of metal, forming a required number of lines of weakness through the sheet of metal during the electroforming process and then bending the flat sheet of metal to the desired shape along the lines of weakness.
It will be apparent that one of the essential advantages of the present invention is the fact that the sheets or foils can be shipped and stored flat and need only be formed into the shape required, just prior to installation.
The method of manufacture, is, in principle, the least expensive method (a) to create metal shapes of the optimum thickness for its structural purposes; (b) to produce holes, cutouts, contours and the exact size of metal pieces required as part of the process of manufacture and requiring no further processing. There is no scrap (c) to provide low energy shearing, folding, bending or tab hole lines in continuous length production of flat sheet; (d) to produce perforations or random holes of variable size to break up and diffuse sound if desired; (e) to provide organic or inorganic finishes as part of the production process if desired and (f) to manufacture a variety of metals and alloys as might in the future be required.
The advantages in the use of such a new material and method are:
(a) reduction of raw material costs as scrap metal can be used;
(b) reduction in labor costs as handling is drastically reduced;
(c) finishing costs as they are included in the process;
(d) reducing inventory space as all finished production are in the flat;
(e) offer cartoning cost reduction on large projects where, on site, field assembly might be less expensive than factory assembly, cartoning and finished goods freight costs.
As plant costs, labor rates and tooling costs have been increasing steadily, another method to offset these inflationary costs has advantages if it is relatively automatic, can have shape sizes changed without costly tooling and can be shipped in the flat to the most convenient point of use and then formed into its final bent shape with a minimum expenditure of energy such as by bending quickly and easily in the hand or by having it take bent shapes by going through a guide to shape it if the final shape lines have been previously set into the material.
With the foregoing in view, and other advantages as will become apparent to those skilled in the art to which this invention relates as this specification proceeds, the invention is herein described by reference to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, which includes a description of the preferred typical embodiment of the principles of the present invention, in which: